'Right to work' protests expected to be a major disruption in Lansing Tuesday

Last Thursday, union protesters took to the streets in Lansing. More demonstrators are expected Tuesday.

Steve Carmody/Michigan Radio

Downtown Lansing is preparing for another big protest day at the state capitol tomorrow.

The impact could be bigger than last week’s protest against so called "Right to Work" legislation.

Organizers expect several thousand union members and their supporters will descend on Lansing on Tuesday. Its part of a protest against the legislature’s expected votes on Right to Work bills.

A union spokesman says protest organizers have been in touch with local police to discuss how they’ll handle the expected traffic disruption in downtown Lansing during the planned day long demonstration. Lansing police plan to close several streets around the state capitol beginning Tuesday morning.

Last week, Lansing police had to block off traffic south of the capitol when hundreds of union protesters left the capitol building to hold a separate protest a few blocks away at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce building.

Last week’s Right to Work protest did affect downtown businesses in different ways, with some sandwich shops seeing an increase in business, but for others last Thursday business took a hit.

Shouting and chanting filled the halls and rotunda of the State Capitol building on Thursday as Right to Work bills made their way into the state House and Senate. And, more protests are likely this week as the Legislature will take what are likely the final votes to send this so-called “right to work”- or “freedom to work” bills as they’re known to some supporters and “right to work for less” if you’re on the union side – to the governor’s desk.

And Snyder will almost certainly sign them. This week, within the space of 72 hours, right-to-work went from “not on my agenda” to “on THE agenda” to Governor Snyder embracing the issue… even after months – years, really – of saying he didn’t want to take up such a divisive issue.

Here atIt’s Just Politics, we’re wondering if it’s about time that the phrase “not on my agenda” has to be retired. The Governor has used the “not on my agenda” phrase before – over the issue of repealing the motorcycle helmet law and domestic partner benefits – and, yet, when these issues actually reach his desk: he signs them.

So, the question this week is: what changed in the Governor’s mind? What made him give-in? Was it simply a matter of inevitability? Right-to-work had just kind of taken on a life of its own after voters knocked down Proposal Two and a lot of interest groups were arguing that that could be interpreted as a referendum on “right-to-work” by Michigan voters; some Republican lawmakers took it as a sign that now was the time to try and introduce the issue. Maybe the governor just had to make the best deal he could once it became clear he was getting a right-to-work bill no matter what.

If you were writing a novel about politics, you couldn’t make this up. Last month a Democratic President was re-elected, easily carrying Michigan by almost half a million votes.

The same day, the state’s voters reelected a liberal Democratic Senator by almost a million votes, and Democrats gained seats in the legislature. Exactly one month to the day later, this same state passed laws destroying the union shop, and making Michigan a right to work state.

Did I think I would ever see this in my lifetime? Absolutely not. But then, I never counted on a black president, General Motors going bankrupt, or Pontiac going out of business.

We live in momentous times. And in the Michigan legislature, last week was a time of lawmaking at breathtaking speed. If there has ever been a lame-duck session anything like this one, I certainly don’t know about it.